Although his colony assigned him to build firetrucks, Mr. Hoffer developed an uncommon calling for a Hutterite. He fell in love with photography. Braving the censure of the elders, he snapped hundreds of photos of his community, his family, their clothes, their closed, agrarian way of life and the prairie light. Sometimes people complained, but as time passed, they got used to him, even when he began uploading the images to photo-sharing site Flickr, and to his personal website.

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For their part, the Hutterites in his community of Green Acres seem less comfortable with Mr. Hofer’s hobby than the young man let on. Between his work and a recent television show, this traditional, patriarchal community of about 50,000 across North America, mostly on the Prairies, has been left increasingly exposed to a modern world creeping its way in through near-universal Internet access and the cell phones that are now as ubiquitous among young Hutterites as in mainstream society.

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Hutterites are a conservative, agrarian Christian people that live communally. Their 500-year old way of life has been passed down, little changed, from eastern Europe. Most Hutterites settled in Canada about 150 years ago. Several colonies are also thriving in the U.S.

Individuals own no property. Their clothing, possessions, food and bills are all provided by the commmunity.

The 24th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest is in full swing. The entry deadline has been extended until July 11. The four categories include: Travel Portraits; Outdoor Scenes; Sense of Place and Spontaneous Moments. Last year's contest drew nearly 13,000 images from all over the world. The pictures are as diverse as their authors, capturing an assortment of people, places and wildlife - everything that makes traveling so memorable, evoking a sense of delight and discovery. The following post includes a small sampling of the entrant's work, taken from the editor's picks in each of the categories. (The captions are written by the entrants, some slightly corrected for readability.) And for fun, take a look back at the winners from 2011 at National Geographic Traveler.

For 20 years now, New York-based photographer Spencer Tunick has been creating human art installations all over the world, calling together volunteers by the hundreds or thousands, asking them to remove their clothes, and photographing them in massive groups. His philosophy is that "individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together, metamorphose into a new shape." He aims to create an architecture of flesh, where the masses of human bodies blend with the landscape, or juxtapose with architecture. Collected here are images from several of his installations as they were being composed. Warning: The following photos all depict naked human bodies, and are not screened out. The nudity is central to Tunick's art.

Although photographer Matthew Rolston has built a career on entertainment portraiture, advertising, and music videos, he suddenly found himself looking for a different outlet in 2009.

“My professional work is subject to tremendous agendas; everything I do is mediated by a group of people, even the creative work is usually mentioned in a contract,” Rolston said. “When I started this first-ever fine-art project I wanted to have none of that; I went into it just wanting to take these pictures.”

The project turned out to be a series about ventriloquist dummies from the Vent Haven Museum, now a 224-page book titled Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits, published by Pointed Leaf Press. Rolston mentioned that once he started thinking about tackling an independent project, he had a hard time focusing on anything else.

Iran has appeared in numerous headlines around the world in recent months, usually attached to stories about military exercises and other saber-rattlings, economic sanctions, a suspected nuclear program, and varied political struggles. Iran is a country of more than 75 million people with a diverse history stretching back many thousands of years. While over 90 percent of Iranians belong to the Shia branch of Islam -- the official state religion -- Iran is also home to nearly 300,000 Christians, and the largest community of Jews in the Middle East outside Israel. At a time when military and political images seem to dominate the news about Iran, I thought it would be interesting to take a recent look inside the country, to see its people through the lenses of agency photographers. Keep in mind that foreign media are still subject to Iranian restrictions on reporting.

This week Hindus around the world celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors. Holi is a popular springtime celebration observed on the last full moon of the lunar month. Participants traditionally throw bright, vibrant powders at friends and strangers alike as they celebrate the arrival of spring, commemorate Krishna's pranks, and allow each other a momentary freedom -- a chance to drop their inhibitions and simply play and dance. Gathered here are images of this year's Holi festival from across India.

__________________There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. - Leonard Cohen